I took my six year-old son up to Springfield for the house show last night since it was only an hour drive for us. Being close to St. Louis, we don't get anymore house shows due to the high turnouts for TV tapings and pay-per-views. I hadn't been to one of these in at least eight years so I was just as excited as my son was. It was held at the Prairie Capital Convention Center, which is a very small venue, maybe 3K capacity tops, if that. All the people were on the floor around the ring or in a few of the risers, maybe 1500 people if that. We had front row of the first riser on the floor and were still only about 50 feet from the ring/entrance area. They never used a small stage setup when I use to see these so that was different and fun to see the entrance videos. It also added more atmosphere. Being a house show there were a ton of kids and not too many diehard fans, let alone parents that really knew what was going on. It was a split roster with there being back to back shows in Texas Saturday and Sunday so we saw all the guys that wrestled Saturday most likely. Now, on with the show!

1. Santino Marella beat Damien Sandow. They both did some comedic mic work before the match and then actually put on a decent match that had my son laughing the whole time.

2. The Funkadactyls beat AJ Lee and Layla. There was a poll for either a dance off or a tag match and of course we voted for the tag match. A few botched moves as expected in a women's match with the Funkadactyls getting the win.

3. Sami Zayn beat Jack Swagger. Swagger started with his "We The People" skit on the mic and put down the crowd. I never heard of Sami so didn't know what to expect. He actually was pretty damn good. He did a few nice high end rope moves that wow'd the crowd. He could be a good mid carder in the future.

4. Rob Van Dam beat Alberto Del Rio via DQ in a World Hvt. Championship match. This was the first time seeing RVD live in a long time for me, so I was pretty pumped for this. A really good back and forth match with it starting off by Del Rio doing the RVD chant but saying ADR in stead prompting RVD to do it back at him. The usual RVD spots with the DQ coming by ADR hitting him with the title. Afterwards, RVD stayed out for awhile posing with the belt and feeding off the crowd. He then went around all the rails and greeted fans before heading to the back.

Intermission

5. Ryback beat Zack Ryder. Yes, Ryder is still alive. As Ryback came out, he bullied the announcer to open the ropes for him calling him stupid and then making him do 10 pushups in the ring. Ryback is pretty useless I think now as he has ZERO mic skills and the bully thing with him is pretty lame.

6. The Wyatt Family beat The Usos and Kofi Kingston in a six-man tag. This was the first time for me seeing the Wyatts live and it was fun to watch how they do there weird mannerisms and slow moves making them some what eerie. Bray Wyatt got the pin with his finisher. The crowd was pretty hot for this one with a lot of in/out the ring action.

7. C.M. Punk beat Curtis Axel (w/Paul Heyman) in a NO DQ match. Axel came out and then went to the back and rolled Paul Heyman out in his wheel chair. Heyman stated he went to the court house today in Springfield and got the match changed to just a No DQ and that the title would not be on the line. A really good match with both men using chairs/kendo sticks to whoop up on one another. Punk got the win and once the bell rang Ryback ran down and both Ryback/Axel whooped up on Punk. Enter Kofi Kingston for the save with both men hitting finishers.

The interesting thing here as a long time fan is what Punk did. I've known about the Stone Cold vs. Punk match that a lot of people wanna see and its been planted several times ever since Punk's Pipe Bomb promo. When he and Kofi hit finishers, Punk did the Stunner on Axel and the bang, bang, bang sign with his hands as he was falling the opposite way. Then Punk's music hit and they both celebrated. As Punk was on the ropes, the crowd wanted him to celebrate like SCSA always did, so he mocked it like he had an imaginary beer in his hand pouring it all in his mouth.

A couple fans tossed him some bottles of water and he smiled and smacked them together and dumped em all over him. At that time, Austin's music hit and both Punk and Kofi went to each corner and had fans throw their Pepsi and bottled waters up at them and they both did Austin's celebration together. Then Punk's music started again and both greeted fans around all the rails and Punk headed back to the ring. He thanked the crowd and then told everyone to head home to watch Breaking Bad. Both guys were very interactive with the crowd during the whole segment after the Kofi run in and save. Also, Punk had a new shirt on that was black with white letters on the front like the AC/DC logo but it was Best In The World abbreviated.

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